18-month-old weighs 22 kgs; suffers from rare disorder

An 18-month-old boy has been found to be suffering from a rare disorder which has led his body to weigh 22 kg.

Parents of Shreejit Hingankar took him to a city-based Jaslok Hospital for treatment and doctors claim that it is only second such recorded case in India.

The toddler was diagnosed with deficiency of Leptin, a hormone, due to which the brain cannot fathom when the stomach is full and one should stop eating. Its treatment is currently not available in India, doctors handling his case said.

Shreejit weighed 2.5 kg at birth but put on 4 kg in the first six months. In 10 months, he weighed 17 kg and now 22 kg.

Shocked with the unusual gain in their child’s weight, his parents, residents of Bhosari in Pune, brought him to the multi-speciality hospital for treatment.

Rupali Hingankar, his mother said, “Shreejit often suffers from breathlessness and can neither sit on his own nor stand. If I don’t give him food he keeps crying and shouting. We currently have to get his medicines from UK.”

Endocrinologist and Paediatrician Abhishek Kulkarni, handling Shreejit’s case at the hospital, said he is suffering from a rare condition and is the second baby in the country to be affected with this problem.

“Leptin gene mutation or its deficiency does not have a cure in India. He needs to be given Leptin shots twice a day to control his hormone problem which are available only in England (at Addenbrooke Hospital),” he said.

If this disorder is not treated, it may lead to various other ailments in the toddler. “Shreejit is already on blood pressure tablets,” Kulkarni said.

The first such case was of a baby girl, Risha Amara, from Karnataka. A year back, nine-month-old Amara was referred to the hospital. She weighed 18 kg at that time “She has also been under treatment of the Cambridge hospital. She now weighs 16 kg,” Kulkarni said.